Justified and Vice Principals alum Walton Goggins will headline and executive produce the upcoming eight-episode second season of Deep State. The spy thriller from Fox Networks Group Europe & Africa airs in 50 markets across the region.
Goggins will take over for Mark Strong, who starred in the first season. He will play Nathan Miller, a former CIA operative who now works in the private sector as a “Michael Clayton-like” fixer for the deep state. Also joining the series as new cast members are Victoria Hamilton (The Crown) as Meaghan Sullivan, a Republican U.S. senator who is determined to bring the illicit activities of the deep state to light; Lily Banda (The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind) as Aicha Konaté, a Malian aid worker intent on improving things for her country; and Shelley Conn (Liar), who plays Miller’s ex-wife.
Returning cast members for the second season include Joe Dempsie, Karima McAdams, Alistair Petrie and Anastasia Griffiths. Production takes place in South Africa, Morocco and the UK, with Season 2 set to premiere globally in 2019. Co-created, directed and written by Matthew Parkhill (Rogue), Deep State is described as a grounded, visceral thriller that moves between the deeply personal story of a family man fighting to escape his past and the violent, dark excesses of government and global corporate power.
The first season centered on Max Easton (Strong), an ex-spy whose past comes back to haunt him when he’s summoned away from his new life in the Pyrenees by George White (Petrie), head of covert MI6/CIA team called The Section. White convinces Max to return to the field to avenge the death of his estranged son Harry. But the stakes are soon raised when Max finds himself at the heart of a covert intelligence war, immersed in a widespread conspiracy to profit from the spread of chaos in the Middle East.
The second season will expand and delve deeper into the murky world of the deep state. Having failed in the Middle East, those powers now are turning their attention to Sub-Saharan Africa and the scramble to plunder its natural resources. This is the first dirty war over clean energy. The season also will explore the origin stories of some of our favorite characters from Season 1 alongside witnessing the fall of a hero and orchestrating the making of a terrorist in the eyes of the West.
“At the heart of this project is this major new character, Nathan Miller (Goggins), an ex-CIA agent, who now acts on behalf of the deep state,” said showrunner Parkhill. “Our aim for the show is to move beyond the first season, expanding the shadowy world of the deep state and encourage viewers to delve deeper into how it goes about ruthlessly achieving its goals.”
The show, produced by Red Arrow’s Endor Productions, also airs on U.S. network Epix and has been sold to broadcasters including SBS in Australia, NBCUniversal in France, Super Channel in Canada, TVNZ in New Zealand and DRTV in Denmark.
